CPU Fan, Heat sink and paste?

[2_elephant_2]

I am thinking about building my own PC for the first time and found a lot of the guide on this website very helpful.

The only thing that I am not sure about is concerning the CPUs.

When you buy a CPU does it come with a fan and heat sink? If they do come with them do most people buy there own or are they good enough? I am saying this because most cases come with low voltage PSUs and for a gaming computer I should buy a new one around 700W or more.

Also I have heard that some CPUs come with thermal paste. Do you put this directly on the CPU and then put the heat sink then fan on top? If it doesn’t come with any paste I am guess that I defiantly need it.

 

[saaiello]

All retail boxed CPUs come with a heatsink and fan with a thin layer of preapplied thermal paste. If you are looking to learn how to overclock you will need to get a bigger heatsink and fan to deal with the extra heat produced. Intels stock heatsinks suck they barely work at stock speeds AMD coolers are fairly decent but will not work effectively at higher clock speeds when the heat starts building up. At stock speeds the stock coolers for both brands are fine.

Your power supply should be at least 450watts but keep in mind that those cheapo power supplies lets say under $50 are trash and could fry your computer make sure you get a quality PSU eithier a corsair which are the best or Antec which are just as good dont buy some no name PSU and trust it with your very expensive parts its not worth the savings trust me. In determining your wattage you need depends on the hardware. A single graphics card a quad core processor a couple fans and lets say 2 hard drives and a cd burner will need about 450 to 500, when you start getting into overclocking and dual gpus is when you will need 700 plus watts to run your system average system though will run fine with a quality 400 to 500 watt PSU.

 

[2_elephant_2]

Thank you very much for the really quick advice

 

[saaiello]

anytime

 

[Keiki646]

I am thinking about building my own PC for the first time and found a lot of the guide on this website very helpful.

The only thing that I am not sure about is concerning the CPUs.

When you buy a CPU does it come with a fan and heat sink? If they do come with them do most people buy there own or are they good enough? I am saying this because most cases come with low voltage PSUs and for a gaming computer I should buy a new one around 700W or more.

Also I have heard that some CPUs come with thermal paste. Do you put this directly on the CPU and then put the heat sink then fan on top? If it doesn’t come with any paste I am guess that I defiantly need it.

About the CPU, Yes it does come with the Heatsink and Fan. Now one thing you need to know that is, If you are not going to overclock it ,
Because this is your first build gaming PC I would want to just leave the stock Heatsink w/ Fan. Aftermarket Heatsink w/Fans or something just heatsink alone are for the average Overclocker in most cases..

Now about the Case, I would take the money that you save for not buying the heatsink w/Fan in buy it towards a good gaming case with out the PSU. Most of the time The PSU that come with the Case are not that good. Something the Rails are not strong enough or just bad period.
The best thing to do in this case is to buy a aftermarket PSU. Now you are going to need something that has more than 450 watts because most video card need a recommended 450 watts PSU. Think about this one. Here is a Case and a PSU.

This is the case : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517004

and this is the PSU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341037
now if you are going to do SLI/Crossfire
This PSU is best : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341036

Now about Thermal Grease if you are going to keep the stock heatsink w/Fan I would take off the Thermal Grease that is already
on the heatsink and replace with this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835202006 OCZ
Or This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007 Arctic Silver 5

The Thermal Grease that I Have selected, you'll see great temps readings to great CPU cool.

Have any questions just ask. I hope this helps

But how much are you spending on this First build??

 

[shravankale]

I am thinking about building my own PC for the first time and found a lot of the guide on this website very helpful.

The only thing that I am not sure about is concerning the CPUs.

When you buy a CPU does it come with a fan and heat sink? If they do come with them do most people buy there own or are they good enough? I am saying this because most cases come with low voltage PSUs and for a gaming computer I should buy a new one around 700W or more.

Also I have heard that some CPUs come with thermal paste. Do you put this directly on the CPU and then put the heat sink then fan on top? If it doesn’t come with any paste I am guess that I defiantly need it.

1) Yes, the CPU comes with a heatsink and fan.
2) Not all heatsink and fans are good, so people buy aftermarket CPU coolers and some of them are silence lovers so they buy a CPU cooler bu with a silent fan.
3) It depends on your components how much wattage PSU you will need, more won't harm you, except for your pocket . Go to (http://www.antec.outervision.com/) to count approx how much wattage PSU you will need. I got 350W as an answer but i bought a 650W. Buy a good one such as CORSAIR or Silverstone or Antec. Atleast CORSAIR has 80+ % efficiency.

4)My suggestion do apply a thermal paste, since it will ensure better cooling. You can do without it but better you apply some.

GOOD LUCK with building and have FUN..

 

[jsc]

Suggestions for applying thermal compound:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=0